The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-09-17
An Eyanecent People.

Ill lllS COuuNIys duu tillHk llldt 10
the reason we are so hard to please,
as theatrical managers will testify.
One year is all comedy and farce, and
we roar at our favorite actor going in
and out of doors. delivering notes to
the wrong parties and hiding under
lounges, and the next year we decline
to indulge in more than a weary
smile, and prefer to shudder at Will
son Barrett as Claudian. Then there
comes an era of comic opera, and we
sit open mouthed listening 10 jingles
which the very next season we vote
idiotic,
Now, it can't be, you know, that
thing can be good and bad. OH the
very face of it, it must be evident
that "Pinafore," for example, is just
as musical and witty in 1887 as it was
ten years ago. The change from good
to bad must be due to the fluctuating
quality of our alleged mind, and it
becomes US to inquire into the cause.
No such state of affairs exists in any
country outside of our own. In Italy
the opera fourishes year after year,
and the man who votes it a deuced
bore is guilty of high treason. In
Germany there is nc such thing as a
"revival" of Wagner, because he is
always with them, and in France the
dear, naughty, delightful comedies
have been played from time immem-
Orlal. The consistency with which
the Dutch stick to the quaint Kir-
miss is proverbial, and only equaled
by the astonishing love Of the Rus
sian for his monthly fair.
We are constant in nothing, not
even in drink, Absurd as it may APP
pear, there is a fashion in beverages,
Independent of the seasons. The high
collared youth toy with brandy one
year and get fuddled on gin the next.
One winter everybody sips rum
punch and the next they take their
Whiskey plain. So in smoking. 1t
used to be a cigar, then came the
deadly cigarette, and now pipes are
the correct thing. | cannot bring
myself to believe that your true pipe
smoker would ever touch a cigarette,
except in anger. Nor do l believe
that he would smoke pipe on the
public pave. A pipe is Synonymous
with privacy, and the sacred rites
are not for profane eyes,
Let us consider jokes and funny
sayings. What can sound more
inane than "Shoo fly, don't bodder
meW Positively nauseating; yet
we all used to grin, giggle and roar
about twenty years ago over the say
ing. Further along, to say "Shoot
that hat" would conyulse everybody
within hearing, We have it from
English authorities that walker"
was once conducive to fun in the fog
gy island, but how can we point the
finger of scorn while we smile at "Ah
there" and "Rats !" Able statisti-
clans have computed that the mere
cost of printing the word "chestnut"
in the columns Of reputable neWspa-
perS amounted to a million dollars.
A brief six months after it was the
epitome Of pungent wit, and now a
person is abhOrred as an unclean
thing who gives it vent, and its use
is confined exclusively to English
newspapers which have just discov-
cred it.
Not that this foolery is without its
uses. Many a man has confuted
philosopher with "chestnuts !" and
disarmed critic with traits !" Re
joinder is impossible to such an ex-
clamation, except it takes the shape
of clinched fist. But what [ want
to know is where the fun goes, and
why traits" isn't just as good a re-
joinder this year as it was the last.
1t isn't as if we were going through
a process of evolution and mounting
upward to a point where we would
discard this tomfOolery and talk like
Boston people, because one senselass
gag" is promptly succeeded by an
other equally senseless. The good
old expressive anathemas will always
hold their ground, but what man can
predict the gag which will set the Ia
BILE in roar on or about the first of
next September Will it be sharp
and sententious, like rats" or will
it be long and argumentative, like
"What are you giving us, say?"
Will it be productive of fun or fight?
Will it live forever or die next year ?
Tunneling the Rocky Mountains.
One of the most prodigious engi.